Two-Month Tour Includes Stops at South by Southwest and Bonnaroo

On a recent frigid Tuesday morning,
Alex Bleeker
climbed into a red van in Williamsburg and began picking up the other four members of his band Real Estate for a day trip to their hometown, Ridgewood, N.J. After the bassist picked up his newest bandmates, drummer Jackson Pollis and keyboardist
Matt Kallman,
he steered onto the FDR to rendezvous with guitarists
Martin Courtney IV
and
Matt Mondanile,
who were already on the other side of the Hudson.

Real Estate, whose latest album, "Atlas," is released this week, bought the van (nicknamed "Reality," after an early EP) in 2009 while on its first tour. At the moment, it was idling in midday traffic.

Messrs. Pollis and Kallman—who joined in 2011 and 2013, respectively—manned the iPod, playing everything from
Robert Palmer
to an obscure New Jerseyite,
Bob Chance.
When
Jim Croce's
lite-rock staple "Operator" came on, Mr. Bleeker looked into the rearview mirror. "This song can literally make me cry," he said to his bandmates, as traffic began to budge.

"Reality," however, won't be part of the package when Real Estate kicks off its two-month U.S. tour. Its 2011 album "Days" sold more than 60,000 copies (double the band's self-titled debut) and on this tour, it's playing its biggest venues to date, headlining Pitchfork's SXSW Party in Austin, Texas, and appearing at the Bonnaroo festival in Tennessee.

Its sound is reminiscent of the heyday of '80s and '90s indie rock, with a judicious amount of '70s soft rock. There is a jangle to the guitars of Messrs. Courtney and Mondanile that brings to mind "Reckoning"-era R.E.M., as well as fellow Jerseyites like
Yo La Tengo
and the Feelies, able to be wistful and understated in song. As he drove into New Jersey, Mr. Bleeker pointed at a hill ahead and noted that
Glenn Mercer
of the Feelies lives there and that Real Estate had recently gone to jam with him.

Once the van entered Ridgewood, Mr. Bleeker picked up Messrs. Courtney and Mondanile; all three of their childhood homes are within a mile of one another. "Martin and I started a band together the last day of eighth grade and practiced all summer," Mr. Bleeker said. "Matt and I became friends freshman year. We bonded over Weezer." The three thought they had made it when, as sophomores, they had cute female classmates and seniors show up to their concert.

After graduating high school in 2004, the three enrolled in different liberal-arts colleges but reconvened at winter breaks. When Mr. Courtney sent a recording of his music to Messrs. Mondanile and Bleeker, the two of them, impressed, "figured out every song and played them together, without Martin's knowledge," Mr. Mondanile said. When college ended, they started a band in earnest.

"We used to practice at my parents' house, and one evening after practice, my mom suggested that we should all get real-estate licenses," Mr. Courtney said. "We joked about how it would be funny if we called the band Real Estate, working in real estate by day and playing shows by night."

The name stuck.

Messrs. Bleeker and Mondanile each had their own bands when they booked the first Real Estate tour. "We were the weirdos at these noise shows, playing these pretty pop songs," Mr. Mondanile said. "People were confused."

But influential music sites like Pitchfork and Stereogum took notice, and soon Real Estate became their priority.

Where "Atlas" distances itself from Real Estate's previous albums is in its matured perspective. On a song like "Past Lives," Mr. Courtney sings about returning to his hometown, "realizing," he said, "that while very little about the place itself has changed, the way you see it has changed, because you've gotten older."

Take, for example, the Taste of Italy, a deli once situated across the street from Ridgewood High School. It's since moved to the neighboring township of Westwood and been renamed Lepore's, so "Reality" headed six miles east and the band members ordered the same sandwiches they enjoyed as teenagers. The owner leaned over the counter to say hello to the locals made good.

"Real Estate is the music that bonds us all together, it's our common thread," Mr. Bleeker said as he relished an Italian sub topped with fresh mozzarella. "It hearkens back to the music that brought us together in the first place."

"I realized at one point that Real Estate is the type of band we ourselves would have loved in high school," Mr. Courtney said. "We make music for our high-school selves in that way."